7 th Art Releasing has acquired and will release filmmaker Claire Ferguson’s documentary Destination Unknown about survivors of the Holocaust. In their own words, the film traces the survivors’ journeys from the outbreak of war, through the misery of the ghettos, to the horrors of the concentration camps and how the survivors find light in the darkness as they survived the captivity and fear and began turning their lives around. 7th Art Releasing will release the film theatrically on Nov. 10.

“Fourteen years in the making, this documentary is important for those who think they knew all there is to know about the Holocaust and especially for those who never wanted to know,” said 7th Art Releasing principal Udy Epstein. “Deeper understanding of the Holocaust is extremely important today when neo-Nazis freely walk in America’s streets, hence Destination Unknown is a must see.”

Destination Unknown had just had a theatrical run in the UK where it received critical kudos: The Times gave it 4 stars and The Guardian gave it 5. The film about Holocaust testimony premiered at the Sheffield Doc Fest.

Ferguson is best known for her work editing feature documentaries such as Nick Broomfield’s Aileen: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer and the Grammy-winning Concert for George. “I wanted to make a film where the only voices are those of the survivors themselves. The challenge was to weave those individual voices together in a way that created a wider story, one that explored not only the pain of the Holocaust itself, but the building of new lives afterwards. My overriding question was ‘How can you make a life after such pain.”

The film was produced by Llion Roberts; executive producers are Dr. Stephen Smith and Christopher Hird.

Since 1994, 7th Art Releasing was founded by Udy Epstein and Jonathan Cordish, and is headed by Epstein with Shane Griffin (Acquisitions, Licensing), Jake Bart (Festivals, Theatrical), and Chris Platt (Educational, Special Projects).